Love Isn't Arbitrary
by Tori.Lars
Summary: After Peedee comes out to Steven as gay, their relationship changes forever - but Steven wasn't expecting the domino effect that followed. Will Connie ever forgive him? Polyamory, complete.
1. Peedee

The delicious smell of grease filled Steven's nose as he entered Beach Citywalk Fries. It was getting late in the evening and his friend Peedee waved at him from behind the counter.

"We're closing down in a few minutes," Peedee called. "You want anything?"

"Got any bits?"

Peedee rolled his eyes. "I mean besides that. I've already got a bag of those for you."

"A soda would be great, thanks."

The place was mostly empty when Steven got there and everyone cleared out within ten minutes. Despite Peedee being fifteen, his dad trusted him to close the joint on his own on slower nights, so Mr. Fryman had taken the night off. Peedee wiped down the counter and locked the doors before hurrying to Steven's table.

He dropped the bag of fry bits and slid the soda so Steven had to reach out to stop it from falling off the table.

"Thanks!"

"So did you read it?" Peedee asked, without any preamble. He flipped a chair around so he was straddling it, his hands excitedly gripping the back, his eyes wide.

"Yeah," Steven said, pulling a binder out of his cheeseburger backpack. "It's really good, Peedee."

A huge grin broke out on Peedee's face. "You think?"

Peedee had written a book-an action novel, specifically, and as Steven had more personal experience with action than anyone else Peedee knew, he'd passed the first draft to Steven for notes.

"Yeah! The stuff Patrick goes through is super exciting. Like that car crash, woow!"

A faint blush started on Peedee's face. "I did a lot of research for that part."

"I could tell, you described the-the _crunching_ and"-Steven visibly shivered-"yeah, that part gave me chills."

"Thanks, Steven."

Steven passed Peedee the binder. "I made a lot of notes like you asked me too. I'm really impressed you're doing this-writing a book is so much work."

Peedee snorted. "You're telling me. It took me three months to write this, and I'll have to rewrite it a hundred times." He flipped open the binder and thumbed through the printed pages, glancing at Steven's additions in purple ink but not stopping to read any of them. "I can't wait to read all of this," he said, grinning up at Steven. "What big tips do you have? Like, plot points, what should I change?"

Steven shook his head. "I like them all! But I do think you should add some more characters. Patrick is great but he and his dad are the only people we meet. What if Patrick got a love interest?"

Peedee's blush came back quickly and he looked back at the binder, avoiding Steven's eyes. "I thought about that, but I don't know…"

Steven shrugged. "It doesn't have to be a big part. Just someone to shake things up, and it gives Patrick some extra motivation-he's got someone to make it home to."

Peedee sighed. "When I first started my outline, he had a girlfriend. I couldn't… I don't know, I'd try to write her and nothing felt right. Here." Peedee typed into his phone for a second before passing it to Steven. It was a picture of his original handwritten outline. Steven zoomed in and skimmed over it-the name Jessica appeared a few times.

"What was wrong with her?" Steven asked.

Peedee was quiet for a few seconds. Not wanting to push him, Steven looked over the outline and noted the differences from the draft he had read-it was like seeing Peedee's writing process.

The silence was tense and Steven opened his mouth to apologize for asking about Jessica when Peedee said, "I think I know what's wrong with her, but I can't fix it."

"What do you mean?"

"Her problem is...she's a girl. It doesn't feel right to write her as a love interest." Peedee finally met Steven's eyes again. "I'm gay."

Steven sighed, relieved. "That's an easy writing problem to fix! Give Patrick a boyfriend, instead."

Peedee's eyes widened. "W-what?" He shook his head and leaned forward, his arms on table. "Steven, you don't understand, I haven't told anyone else. No one else knows. And if I give Patrick a boyfriend, everyone would know-my dad, Ronaldo. Steven, you can't tell anyone, okay?"

Steven blinked, taken aback. "Of course I won't tell anyone." He put his hand on Peedee's arm. "I'm sorry, Peedee, I didn't mean to be..."

"No, it's-it's fine." Peedee took a deep breath. "I just wasn't planning on coming out tonight. I...I feel better, though." He laughed, lightly at first; then more giddily, more energetically. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head, a big smile on his face. "Steven?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gay."

Steven laughed. "Yeah, I know. Does it feel good to say it?"

"Man, better than I thought it could. And it really doesn't bother you, does it?"

Steven snorted. "Of course not. Do you know anything about my family?"

Peedee laughed again, bouncing on his toes. "Let's go somewhere."

"The arcade?"

Peedee shook his head. "I wanna keep talking to you, but I'm hyper. Let's go to the park."

Dewey Park was just across the street from the fast food restaurant. The moon was bright and the sky was clear-a perfect night for a walk in the park. Peedee had a bounce in his step as they crunched across the dry grass around the statue of Mayor Dewey. The park, like the rest of Beach City, was quiet and still, bathed in moonlight.

"Steven, tell me about your family."

"What do you want to know?"

Steven explained his relationship with the Gems; his mother's passing; and the basics of what the Gems did for the planet. Peedee was a good listener. He asked questions and was genuinely interested in the stories-Steven wondered why they had never talked about this stuff before. By the time he was done, they had walked a lap around the park. They sat on a bench near the entrance, partially shaded by a tree.

"What about their relationships? Are any of the Gems, like, together?" Peedee asked.

"Garnet kinda is. She's really two Gems fused together, Ruby and Sapphire." He explained what fusing was and told him about some other fusions he'd met: Opal, Sardonyx, Alexandrite. "And then there's my fusion, Stevonnie."

"Wait, what? You can fuse?"

"Yeah, with Connie. I haven't been able to fuse with any of the Gems yet, though, so maybe I can't."

"But you can fuse with a human?"

"Right."

"Could you fuse with me?"

"I-I don't know." Steven chuckled nervously. "Do you want to fuse?"

Peedee shrugged and sat back-he had been slowly leaning forward the whole time Steven talked about fusion and only just seemed to realize it. "What's it like?" he asked.

"It's…" but he couldn't think of a way to properly describe it that didn't feel like it was infringing on Connie's privacy. "It's totally different than anything I've done before. It's being a new person, but still kinda being me at the same time."

Peedee nodded slowly. "That sounds nice," he muttered, but he seemed hesitant.

Steven stood up and held out his hand. "We can stop whenever you want, but we should be celebrating you coming out. Dance with me?"

Peedee hesitated but then took Steven's hand and let himself be pulled to his feet. It was eerily quiet but Steven wrapped his arm around Peedee's waist and they swayed together.

"So you just...dance?"

"Yeah, until we're in sync enough, I think. Then my gem starts to glow-that's the giveaway."

They didn't speed up or do anything other than sway. Peedee leaned into Steven, burying his face in his dark curly hair. They had hugged before but this was different. Peedee could feel Steven's gem against his stomach, could hear his breathing close to his ear.

"Thanks again for helping me," Peedee muttered, "with the book, I mean."

"Of course. I'm enjoying it."

"Do you really think Patrick could have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah. I think that's all his story's missing."

Peedee pulled back-his eyes quickly scanned Steven's face; then he kissed him. Peedee's lips were warm and the whole thing felt strange-it was Steven's first kiss-but not bad. He wrapped his arm more tightly around Peedee's waist and kissed him back.

It only lasted a few seconds before Peedee untangled his hand from Steven's hair and stepped back. Steven let him go and suddenly wasn't sure what to do with his arms.

"Was...was that okay?" Peedee asked, avoiding Steven's eyes.

Steven finally decided to shove his hands in his pockets instead of crossing his arms. "Yeah." He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, that was fine, it was...nice."

Peedee looked up, surprised. "Really?"

Steven nodded and Peedee kissed him again, a little harder this time. Steven's pulse was racing and he felt light-headed as he hugged Peedee close-

Peedee's phone started ringing in his pocket. He sighed heavily when he pulled away to look at it.

"It's midnight," he muttered. "That's my alarm. I have to get home."

"Okay," Steven breathed. "I should get home too. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

Peedee smiled. "Okay."


	2. Connie

Steven woke up the next morning and it all felt like a dream. He stared at the ceiling for nearly ten minutes, trying to remember every little piece, every feeling-and wondering what it meant.

He texted Peedee: "Was last night a dream? Just checking." Then he got out of bed and padded downstairs to make breakfast. Amethyst had left a few eggs in the fridge so he cracked them onto a frying pan and dropped two pieces of bread into the toaster.

Just as he was flipping the eggs, he got a response from Peedee: "I wondered that too but I have your backpack so I know it was real. Good morning, Steven :-)"

Steven smiled and felt himself blush. They texted back and forth for most of the morning, but they didn't discuss last night further than that.

Everything felt new to Steven. He'd had a crush on Connie for forever, and...sometimes they flirted. But this felt different. He'd never thought of Peedee like that before, but suddenly it was all he could think about and he kept getting butterflies in his stomach. Flirting through text was surprisingly easy.

Around two in the afternoon, Connie came to visit. They had cookies and lemonade, and talked about Connie's day. After about ten minutes, Steven saw his phone light up (a text from Peedee) and couldn't stand not talking about it anymore.

"Connie," Steven said, "I have something I need to talk to you about."

Connie's face changed. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah!" he said hurriedly. "Yeah, everything's great. I just need to talk to someone about this." He grinned a little and took a deep breath. "I-I had my first kiss last night."

Connie's face changed, slowly at first as his words sank in. "Steven, w-what? First kiss?"

He didn't know why she looked so upset. "Y-yeah. Is something wrong?"

"Steven, who...who did you kiss?" she whispered.

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone," he said. "What's wrong?"

"Why would you kiss someone else?"

"Someone else?" Steven blinked, confused. "I've only kissed one person."

"Steven, that's not what I meant. You and I, we were...I thought we were…I thought you liked me."

"I do like you!" Steven said quickly. "Liking you doesn't stop me from liking someone else, too."

"That's not how things are supposed to go. You don't understand." Connie cast her eyes to the floor. "I thought when we got a little older, maybe when things aren't so intense with the Gems-I thought maybe we would date. But you can't date someone and kiss someone else."

Steven was suddenly struck by the image of Pearl in a tailored suit, crying because his mother had been involved with two people at once and of all the ways Steven could emulate his mother, this way was a nightmare.

He had hurt Connie.

"This is really important to you," he said. "I didn't know."

Connie wiped her eyes. She was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Sometimes I forget you're not human."

Steven leaned back, stung.

"You live with the Gems and you miss out on so much human culture, but I never thought you'd miss monogamy."

Steven couldn't get himself to confess he'd thought monogamy was mostly a tv trope. A preference for some, sure, but-so popular it was... assumed?

"I'm gonna go."

"Connie."

She stood up and crossed her arms, hurrying to the door.

A moment before she reached it, Peedee stepped into view outside. He stopped when he saw them.

"Connie!" he said through the screen door. "Sorry, I'm on break, I should have called first-"

"It's okay, I'm leaving," Connie said angrily. "Steven was just telling me about last night."

Peedee cast a terrified look at Steven. "You told her?"

Steven hurried shook his head but Connie's eyes widened. "It was you?" she gasped.

"I didn't say who," Steven explained quietly. Peedee was still on the other side of the door, and his face flushed in embarrassment.

"Connie, I haven't-I haven't come out," Peedee said. "I don't want anyone to know I'm gay."

"Gay? Peedee, you're fifteen, how do you know you're not-I don't know, confused? Maybe this is a phase?" she spat out.

"Confused?" Peedee said coldly. "Let me explain this to you. Guys who are confused about if they're gay or straight or bi, whatever? Those guys don't come out to their best friend, who is another guy, and then kiss him. I've been confused, and when I was, kissing Steven was never an option, because that was terrifying because I didn't understand why I was so-so- _fucked_ up and different and I'm sorry," he added hastily, lowering his voice when he notice Connie's nervous expression. "I'm sorry, but honestly you have no idea what I've been through."

"Peedee," Connie said quietly, her hands clasped on her chest. "I'm so sorry, that was really insensitive."

Peedee was breathing heavily. Connie glanced back at Steven, then wrenched open the door and ran past Peedee, down the stairs.

"Connie!" Steven called, but he didn't run after her. He couldn't force her to tolerate him.

Peedee slowly opened the door and stepped inside. "Steven, what was that about?"

"I just found out...I know nothing about relationships," he breathed.

"Are you dating Connie?"

Steven didn't know how to answer that. Instead, he did what he'd been wanting to do all day, and hugged Peedee. Peedee's arms wrapped around him.

"Are you okay?" Steven asked.

"Yeah. You don't think Connie will tell-"

"No, she wouldn't do something like that," Steven said confidently.

Peedee pulled away and kissed him, a quick peck on the lips. Despite himself, Steven grinned.

"I, uh, need to get back to work. I just thought it'd be nice to see you," Peedee said. "I hope Connie's okay."

"Yeah," Steven sighed. "I hope so too."


	3. Garnet - Connie & Peedee

"Garnet!" Steven called. He hadn't seen her in a few days, which was normal but still always a pain. Before Peedee went back to work, he'd said Steven could talk to the Gems about him, on the basis that they rarely talked to anyone else in town-and when they did, it wasn't gossip-so he didn't care if they knew he was gay. "Garnet, are you here?"

Ruby and Sapphire's gems on the door to the temple started glowing before the door split and Garnet stepped out. She adjusted her sunglasses as she looked around the room. "Hello, Steven," she said in her deep voice when her eyes landed on him.

"Hey, are you busy?" Steven asked.

"I'm never too busy for my favorite boy," she said as she sat on the couch next to him. "What's going on?"

"I need some advice." He looked up at her. "Peedee kissed me last night."

Garnet simply nodded and Steven wondered if she had seen that with her future vision but shrugged it off.

"Anyway, I didn't think it would hurt Connie for me to tell her that. She's my best friend, I thought she would want to know, but it hurt her feelings that I kissed someone who wasn't her. Even though I've never kissed her!" His hands fidgeted in his lap. "She says I should have known she wouldn't want me to like anyone else."

"Hmm. Sounds like there was a misunderstanding," Garnet said gently.

Steven threw his hands into the air. "Right? Maybe most people on Earth know that stuff but in my experience...I mean, I grew up with you and Pearl and Amethyst. How was I supposed to know Connie wanted to-to marry me, and never be with anyone else?" He paused. "I guess I never saw myself...getting married and...being _monogamous_ , I don't know."

"Connie has grown up in a very strict and traditional human household," Garnet said. "You grew up in the opposite. It should be no surprise when cultural differences like this pop up."

"What should I do?"

"You know now what she wants. What do you want?"

"I've...never really thought about it. I guess I always figured I'd grow up and have a family like I do now-y'know, three or four people, who all...love each other and work together as a family and... maybe raise a kid." Steven suddenly felt like crying but wasn't sure why. "You love Pearl and Amethyst, right?"

"Steven, the love I have for Pearl and Amethyst is strong. I will never stop fighting for them. I always want them in my life. And that love is just as real and valid as the love Ruby has for Sapphire, but they are different."

Steven sighed. "Ruby and Sapphire are romantic, but you're not with Pearl or Amethyst," Steven said, downcast. "So romantic feelings are really supposed to be just between two people."

"That's not what I said," Garnet said calmly. "My point is that partnership is a flexible concept. Pearl, Amethyst, and I don't have to be romantic to be life partners. We have many other things tying us together-not least of which is you," she said, ruffling his hair. "It's important that you understand you get to build relationships however you want. It was wrong of Connie to assume your relationship would fit a pre-written script you never agreed to."

Steven took a deep breath. "Really?" She nodded once and they were silent for a few seconds. Finally, Steven said, "That makes sense. But what do I do? About Connie and Peedee?"

"It sounds like you want to see both of them. The only thing you can do is be honest with them about how you feel, and they get to decide what to do with that information." She wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "It won't be easy, but relationships based on lies are never worth it."

It felt like she was setting him up to lose Connie, and Steven wanted to cry again. He didn't like her plan for their relationship, but she was so important to him… He couldn't imagine life without her, and he didn't want to.

But the thought of telling Peedee no at this point felt impossible. He was really proud of Peedee for coming out to him, and Steven's feelings for him, while still new, were overwhelming. Peedee was literally always on Steven's mind.

He leaned back against Garnet, who wrapped him in a hug.

* * *

Peedee wasn't expecting to see Connie again so soon, but she stopped by the restaurant just as he was clocking out the next day.

"Hey," she said softly when she reached him. "It's okay if you say no, but can I talk to you?"

He glanced around to make sure his dad wasn't watching them. "Yeah, but let's go somewhere else."

They walked in silence to Dewey Park, though Peedee steered her to a different bench than the one he and Steven had chosen the other night. It was three o'clock in the afternoon, a warm day, and they sat in the shade, away from the few other groups lounging around.

"First, I want to apologize again for what I said yesterday," Connie said, looking at the ground. "I was really upset but I shouldn't have taken that out on you."

Peedee shrugged. "Thanks. Sorry if I was a little harsh-"

"No, no!" Connie said hurriedly, looking up. "You were right, I said it trying to hurt you so you were right to defend yourself." She took a deep breath. "Steven's my only friend, so I don't have anyone else to talk to about this. I know this is a weird question since you don't know me very well, but Steven's always talked about how responsible and mature you are so-can I talk to you about it?"

Peedee considered her for a few seconds before nodding. "Sure, but I don't know how helpful I'll be. I'm not very good at advice."

"No, it's okay. I really just want your opinion on-well, first, I know this is really personal, but do you want to date Steven?"

Peedee blushed faintly and looked away. "Honestly, I really like him. If he asked me out, I'd say yes."

"But you're not going to ask him?" Connie asked.

Peedee shook his head. "I feel like, since I made the first move, I should wait for him to make the next one. He knows I'm gay, he knows I like him. I need to give him time to figure out what he wants, you know?"

Connie grinned, despite herself. "I bet he hasn't even thought about what liking you means. I bet if you asked him if he was gay, he'd say, 'I haven't thought about it,'" Connie said, lowering her voice in an impression of Steven, then she laughed.

"That was a great Steven voice, but c'mon," Peedee said, "of course he's thought about it. There's no way a guy can kiss another guy and not wonder if he's gay."

"No, I bet he hasn't. I bet liking both of us hasn't confused him at all, because"-she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial hiss-"I'm not entirely sure he knows what gender is."

"What!"

"No, seriously. I've wondered for a while, and honestly this whole-situation we're in now just makes me wonder if he thinks gender is a tv trope, and not something real people actually deal with," she said and she was laughing, but Peedee could tell she meant it-it was something he'd never imagined, how could someone not understand gender? "The Gems don't have genders, you know," she added.

"I thought they were women?"

"No, they're Gems. Gems are an alien race, and they don't have genders. And sometimes I think Steven doesn't either-not even his human half. That's-that's possible. Sometimes people don't a gender. I looked it up. It's called agender, or neutrois." Her hands fidgetted in her lap. "I haven't talked to Steven about it. He doesn't seem bothered by missing out on it, so…"

"I haven't heard of that before," Peedee said.

She nodded. "I honestly never thought Steven was...straight. I realized that last night. I don't think he's gay, either, just...it didn't surprise me at all that the person he kissed was a guy, and I just doubt it made him reconsider anything about his identity. He was Steven before you kissed him, and he's Steven now, and that's...all there is to it?" She grinned. "I think, if he ever cared to find a label, he'd probably pick pansexual."

"That one I know," Peedee said triumphantly. "And yeah, it does sound like Steven."

Connie continued: "And last night I did some more reading. Have you heard of polyamory?" Peedee shook his head. "Poly is Greek for 'many,' amory is Latin for 'love,' so...basically, it's dating more than one person, as long as everyone's okay with it."

"So, if Steven dated both of us? At the same time?" Peedee asked.

"Right. It wouldn't be cheating, because we...know about each other. Is that crazy?" she whispered.

Peedee didn't answer at first. He'd known there was a possibility of Steven dating Connie when he kissed him, but he'd always thought Steven would...Peedee was struck with an image of Steven writing pros-and-cons lists about his best friends, and suddenly realized how sad a picture that was.

"It's...really not fair to ask him to choose," he muttered. "He clearly likes both of us, right, so, picking just one of us-"

"Would also be asking him to sacrifice a relationship with someone he cares about, and I've been thinking this whole time that I don't think I can ask him to do that," she said. "He's...he's easily the most loving person I've ever met. Seriously, get him to tell you the story of the Cluster sometime." She chuckled. "I feel like, if anyone is up to a task called 'many loves,' it's Steven."

"It doesn't sound crazy to me," Peedee said after a pause. "I think I'd...I'd try that, if he wanted to."

"Really?"

"I mean, it feels like it's worth a shot. If it's a bad idea, we just end up back where we are now, right?"

"But if it's a good idea," Connie said, smiling, "everyone can win."


	4. OT3

"Are you busy?"

Steven stared at the text from Connie. She hadn't contacted him since their fight the day before and he was, actually, busy. He and the Gems were going on routine checks like they did once a week or so, to see if anything had changed suspiciously, but Garnet noticed when Steven stopped on the way to the warp pad.

"Is everything alright?" she asked stoically. Pearl and Amethyst stopped too.

"I think Connie wants to talk to me," he said, "but I don't want to miss-"

"It's okay, Steven! We can handle this one on our own," Amethyst said, glancing sideways at Garnet. Steven hasn't talked to Amethyst or Pearl about what was going on but they clearly knew something was up.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, man, we'll hit you up later!"

After they were gone, he texted Connie back, letting her know he was available. He paced a few laps around the living room before she showed up at his door about ten minutes later.

"That was fast," he said as he let her in. She looked like she wasn't mad anymore but he didn't want to push her so he kept a few feet of space between them.

"Yeah, I was just in the park," she said, sitting on the couch. "I was actually talking to Peedee."

Steven blinked. "Really?"

"I had some questions for him."

"L-like what?" Steven asked hesitantly.

Connie shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. "Steven, I'm sorry I blew up at you yesterday. What you said really took me by surprise and I was-really upset for a while."

"I'm sorry, too," Steven said sadly. "I should really know more about humans. I learn about Gems all the time, but…" He still wasn't really sure what he wanted to say to her. He was scared that being honest about liking Peedee might make her leave again but Garnet's words about relationships and lies kept ringing in his head.

"I wanted to know what Peedee wanted," Connie continued. "Now I want to know what you want. I promise not to get upset," she added.

"What I want?"

"Yeah, like...do you want to go out with Peedee?"

Steven sat on the couch and turned in the seat to face her, but didn't meet her eyes. He still had time to lie, to give her no reason to leave. He could say kissing was a mistake, Peedee was a mistake, Steven could do monogamy.

Steven took a deep breath. "Yeah… Yeah, I want to go out with Peedee. But I don't want to lose you!" he added desperately.

Connie held up her hand. "It's okay, Steven. I-I did some research yesterday about people-humans-who date more than one person at the same time. And I talked to Peedee about it a little, and, well, if you wanted…" She took a deep breath. "I really like you and honestly I'm not-I think I was right to want to wait before we start dating. I love our relationship right now, and I want it to evolve into something more, but right now I want to focus on being your friend and helping you and the Gems whenever I can. I just...I don't want us to be thrown off-track."

"Can you-can you explain what the track is, that we're on?" Steven asked slowly.

"It's called the relationship escalator," she said. "It's what most people expect their relationships to do over time, like…first we met, then we got to be friends, then we were best friends. Eventually, we would start dating, and fall in love, and move in together, and get married, and have kids. I mean, well, that's what-that's what the escalator looks like for most people."

She averted her eyes but he nodded for her to continue.

"With monogamy, you dating Peedee would basically kick me out and put him on the escalator with you. With polyamory, you can be on two different escalators-or, maybe, even get rid of the escalators entirely," but she didn't sound so sure about that last part. She shook her head, as if to clear it. "I don't understand that so much, but I did just learn about all this yesterday-"

"You're so smart and-dedicated to learning," Steven said earnestly. "I never thought about looking for answers like that."

Connie shrugged but couldn't stop herself grinning a little. "I feel safer if I can know as much about the problem as I can. Not that you liking Peedee is really a problem anymore."

"So... polyamory?"

"It means 'many loves.' Dating, falling in love with more than one person. I realized I can't ask you to pick between me and Peedee-if you can be friends with us both, there's no reason you can't date us both, y'know...at least, I'm willing to give it a try. And so is Peedee. He wants to talk to you about it too, though."

Steven took a deep breath and then chuckled, shaking his head. Connie grinned and scooted closer on the couch. She took his hand. They leaned into each other.

They sat like that for a minute, listening to each other breathe, before Steven muttered, "I love you, Connie."

She sat up and looked at him, eyes wide, her hand clenching on his. A faint blush spread over her face.

"You're my best friend," he continued, his heart suddenly racing, "and I was so scared after everything yesterday, that I'd messed everything up-but here you are, and you...fixed it all. You impress me every day. I love you, and...thanks for being here, for thinking I'm worth all the effort you spend on me."

She shook her head and blinked back tears, but she was smiling. "Of course you're worth it, dummie. You-you know what you mean to me." She brushed her hair back from her face and met his eyes. "I love you too."

She left not long after that, saying she was getting too far behind on homework-thanks to researching queer identities and polyamory all night instead of reading about the solar system.

Steven fell back on the couch and closed his eyes. Polyamory. It felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders-Connie wasn't mad, Peedee wasn't mad, and they were both interested in him.

He texted Peedee: "I just talked to Connie. And I miss you."

His reply didn't take long: It was a picture of the bench where they'd talked, danced, and kissed just two nights before. The sun was just starting to sink behind the trees, casting long shadows on the ground. Steven smiled and slipped into his flipflops.

Peedee was sitting on the bench when Steven got to the park ten minutes later. He was writing in a notebook, with Steven's cheeseburger backpack at his feet.

A few people were at the park this time, including the Cool Kids who seemed to be having a pizza picnic. Steven could just hear the indie music from the speakers they'd set up around their blanket but they were too far away to hear voices. Jenny waved at him as he walked up, and he waved back.

He slipped onto the bench next to Peedee. "What are you working on?" he asked.

Peedee looked up and grinned. "Actually, I'm making a character sheet for Shawn. Patrick's boyfriend," he said when Steven tilted his head. "I'm taking your advice and writing him a love interest. I-I can't promise I'll include him in the version I give my dad, but it can't hurt to write it."

"That's great! I can't wait to read about them. Patrick and Shawn." Steven leaned back and took Peedee's hand, keeping it low enough no one could see. Peedee blushed.

"I know we should talk about stuff, but just so you know...I want to kiss you," Peedee muttered, lowering his voice even though no one was near.

Steven bit his lip. "I-I know what you mean." He took a deep breath. "So can we talk about-everything?"

"Yeah. Connie had some good points when I talked to her earlier. What do you think?" Peedee asked.

"I think...I really like you. I don't want to stop what this is, y'know? I've never felt like this before. I can't get you out of my head, not for a second."

"I miss you as soon as I leave, until I see you again," Peedee said, laughing. "It's wild, isn't it? How fast these feelings have just appeared-"

"-but they feel so normal, at the same time."

Peedee squeezed his hand on the bench between them. Still smiling, he said, "And what about Connie?"

Steven looked at the Cool Kids, all lying on their blanket, staring up at the steadily dimming sky. Their music was still pulsing away, floating faintly to him on the breeze.

"I love Connie," Steven said simply after a moment. Honesty had gotten him this far, so he decided to keep it up. "We've been through so much together-literally life and death stuff. I love her, and she loves me, but she's not ready to be a girlfriend to anyone yet. So we're just going to be best friends for now, and...if things start to change later, we can decide what we want then." He met Peedee's eyes again. "I don't know for sure what we'll do, and that's okay with me."

Peedee nodded. He looked around quickly, scanning the area for anyone who might be looking at them. After a second, apparently satisfied, he turned back around and kissed Steven, just for a second. Steven's heart raced.

"I like that idea," Peedee said quietly. "Deciding what to do at the time, instead of planning it out."

"Relationships should be flexible," Steven said, thinking back to Garnet's advice. "We get to shape them however we want, you know. As long as we talk to each other, and we're honest, we can write our own scripts."

They talked well past sunset, mostly about Patrick and Shawn, and how a boyfriend would affect Peedee's book. They kissed a little longer before they parted ways, because they were the last ones in the park. Steven got his cheeseburger backpack back and nearly skipped on the way home-he felt buoyant, happier than he had in a long time.

When he got home, he unzipped the pack and pulled out one of the books he'd left in there-a piece of paper fluttered out to the ground. He picked it up.

It was a pencil drawing of two boys, their faces close together but not kissing. At first, Steven thought it might be a stylized drawing of him and Peedee, but a note at the bottom indicated it was Patrick and Shawn. They both had curly hair, which made Steven smile. It was a good drawing, and the boys looked happy.

He put the drawing up next to the picture of Connie at the head of his bed. He spent a few minutes looking at them both before running off to join the Gems. He couldn't wait to update Garnet.


End file.
